


Catch Your Breath- Keith & Running Out of Air

by the_sinnamon_roll_writes



Series: Bad Things Happen [19]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: BAMF Hunk (Voltron), Keith has asthma and it causes some issues, all I know is what google told me, comes in and saves the day, could be read as Keith x Hunk if you want it's up to you dear reader, fifty times, fuck the tags have been a pain in the ass on this one for some reason I've had to redo them like, only rated for language, please don't turn to me for advice about it, quick note: author doesn't have asthma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 11:49:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20227369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_sinnamon_roll_writes/pseuds/the_sinnamon_roll_writes
Summary: Keith has an asthma attack at a very inconvenient moment. Luckily he's with Hunk!





	Catch Your Breath- Keith & Running Out of Air

The Paladins sat in their Lions, staring in wonder at the planet they were meant to be landing on. The entire thing was a bright, sparkling blue, and it practically oozed cold. 

“How are we supposed to go down there?” Pidge asked. “This place is crazy!”

“Yeah, parts of this planet have temperatures reading at forty below,” Hunk said, staring at his Lion’s screen in amazement. “It shouldn’t be possible for anything to survive there. The lowest temperature any simple organism can survive is negative twenty Celsius, right? Coran, are you sure about this?”

_“This is where we received the signal from,”_ Coran confirmed from his place in the Castle’s main control room. _“Life forms in space can adapt to many things, and environments of all kinds. Why, when I was a young lad, I heard of a planet who’s inhabitants regularly experienced temperatures below absolute zero! Never went there, of course. I’ve never been fond of cold weather. Every now and then I wish I had though, just to say I’d experienced it.”_

“Yeah, well humans can’t do that.” Lance ignored Hunk and Pidge immediately protesting how impossible that was and spoke over them. He sounded a bit anxious, and they all remembered then that he was from Cuba- not a place known for its frigid temperatures. “So can we just skip this one over?”

To everyone’s surprise, Keith spoke up next, and he sounded just as anxious as Lance. “I agree. Is it really likely that there are actually people down there? Maybe the signal was just some fluke. And even if it isn’t, like Lance said, we can’t handle low temperatures. We wouldn’t be much help.”

_“Keith, we need to at least look into it. Your armor will be able to keep you warm enough for about... well... subtract the six... carry the ten... one of your Earth hours- plenty of time for you to land and do a quick sweep.”_ The Paladins could practically see Coran counting up on his fingers, and they weren’t exactly comforted by that. Coran had a bit of a track record in being an incredibly poor calculator. 

“We didn’t even get any words in the message. It was just a beacon. Anything could give off a false alarm, right? Pidge? Hunk? Right?”

_“It doesn’t matter how vague it is.”_ Allura sounded firm, and the Paladins all knew that there was no getting out of it. _“We need to check.”_

“Um, hey, Coran, what does ‘warm enough’ mean? Warm enough to what?” Hunk backtracked, concerned. 

_“Warm enough to not die.”_

Everyone had a feeling that Coran had meant for that to be reassuring, but it certainly wasn’t. Especially given that it was likely he considered it warm enough for Alteans not to die- both he and Allura tended to forget that human constitutions just weren’t quite as strong as their own. They could endure a lot, but they simply hadn’t evolved far enough to be the adaptable space ambassadors that the Alteans were yet. 

Apparently they were going to have to adapt to this right now. 

The sigh of resignation swept through all five Paladins simultaneously when their Lions touched down on the frigid planet. 

“Alright, we’re going to have to split up to cover as much ground as we can. Keith, Hunk, you two go that way. Pidge, Lance, you’re with me going this direction. Stay close to each other, and if it feels like you're getting colder, turn around and come back,” Shiro instructed after they’d landed. “Do _not_ take your helmets or armor off. And try to avoid sweating. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you, but in terms of climate, this is probably one of the most dangerous planets we’ve been on so far. Hypothermia is no joking matter. Got it? Alright,” he said, “let’s go then.”

Already Keith and Pidge had started to shiver, despite having only just landed, and Lance was almost there himself. Sometimes it paid to have a bit more bulk. Like right now. All any of them could say was ‘well we have a job to get done, might as well get it out of the way’ though. So they set off, everyone hoping that moving around would help warm them up, despite what Shiro had said about sweating. 

“You know, it’s actually really pretty,” Hunk said after around twenty minutes of walking in total silence. He wasn’t wrong. Whatever the frozen ground on the planet was made of, it reflected any light that touched it into beautiful, sparkling blues and purples. Beside him, Keith nodded, but coughed before he could say anything. “You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Not a huge fan of the cold.” 

If Hunk noticed that Keith sounded winded, he didn’t say anything. In his mind, they had bigger concerns right now. They were creeping up on half an hour, with no luck of finding anything. At all. No mountains or hills- there weren’t even any trees or rocks, let alone a civilization. The only thing that broke up the barren landscape were the occasional large columns that resembled termite hills. 

It was getting colder too. So much for Coran’s hour-long prediction. Shiro had told them to turn around once they started feeling colder, and Hunk was about to say something when he heard Keith suck in a harsh, rattling gasp that immediately came back out as a cough that shook Keith’s entire frame. 

“You _sure_ you’re okay?”

Keith gave Hunk a nod, that quickly turned into a head shake. So Hunk’s suspicions were correct. Keith could be incredibly obnoxious about the whole downplaying injuries or discomforts thing. Like he was doing right now. He must’ve gotten it from Shiro. 

“What is it?”

All Keith could managed was to shake his head again and take another painful breath. 

Drat. That was bad, and Hunk couldn’t ignore it anymore. 

“Uh, guys? We need help, can you lock on to our location or something?” Might as well try and contact the others. In an unfamiliar, hostile environment like this though, it was entirely possible that their comms had been compromised. They’d been in plenty of places where something in the atmosphere had messed with their ability to reach each other, and several of those places had seemed far more hospitable than this was here. 

_“-nk? Tha-“_

The voice broke off there, and Hunk groaned. Double drat. So basically they were stranded in a bitterly cold tundra with no way of getting help, running out of heat, and Keith was basically out of commission. 

“What’s going on Keith? Come on man, talk to me,” Hunk said, a hint of panic becoming apparent in his voice. “What’s happening?”

“Asthma. I can’t- breathe. H- Hunk, I cant-“ Keith was wheezing, clutching at his throat. His head was spinning, and his chest felt like it was on fire. He stumbled down to his knees and had landed hard up against one of the frozen columns like he was slowly losing the strength to remain upright on his own. 

And then Hunk was dropping to the ground in front of him and grabbing his shoulders to offer some support and keep his back straight. They couldn’t just stay here- already their suits were starting to cool off. If they didn’t get back to the Castle soon, then they would freeze to death. Assuming Keith didn’t suffocate first. 

“Keep your back straight. Um- try and stay calm. Slow breaths?” Hunk was struggling to remember what to do in the event of an asthma attack with no access to medication. What else? Get away from the trigger. He had to assume that the trigger was the cold- the cold in which they had just spent thirty minutes walking away from their extraction. Could Keith take another thirty minute walk? The fact that he wasn’t able to stand up certainly didn’t bode well. 

“Okay, I uh- I’m gonna carry you. Sorry man, this might get uncomfortable.” Keith wasn’t going to be able to run, and he wasn’t quite small enough to carry in his arms like Pidge, so Hunk decided on the spot that piggyback would be the way to go. Turning around, Hunk knelt down and reached back to pull Keith’s arms around his shoulders and stood up to start to sprint back the direction they came. It wasn’t very comfortable for either of them, but it worked and they were mobile. Perhaps not very fast, but it was better than just standing there watching him suffocate. 

Hunk had started panting himself, trying his best not to start crying. Given the circumstances, he felt that he was actually doing rather well. Keith was a lot heavier than he looked, and trudging across an icy landscape didn’t make it any easier. Even as exhaustion started seeping into his bones , Hunk didn’t allow himself to slow down; the knowledge that both of their lives were on the line was enough to power him forward. To his distress, Hunk realized that Keith had grown upsettingly quiet on his back. Was he still breathing?

“Keith?”

As much as he wanted to stop and check on him, he knew that he needed to keep going. If Keith was still breathing, then stopping wouldn’t do a darn lick of good. Hunk wasn’t even sure that he’d be able to summon the strength to start running again if he stopped anyways. No, the most important thing right now was to get them both back to the Lions. It felt like the air was getting colder every second, and the fact that he was starting to sweat wasn’t helping at all.

“You better not die back there,” Hunk said, mostly to himself. “If it turns out I ran all this way with a dead freaking body on my back, I will be so mad at you.”

It might’ve been his imagination, but he thought he heard a weak reassurance from Keith. 

Hunk almost started weeping when he saw the massive Lion-shaped figures growing larger up ahead, and movement down at their feet. It had to be Shiro and the others. As they grew nearer, Hunk saw that Pidge had the other two trapped on either side of her, her arms looped with theirs, shivering violently. Shiro and Lance weren’t looking much warmer. She let Shiro go when Hunk and Keith came into view, and he was at Hunk’s side in a second. 

“What happened?!” 

“L-long st-t-torie,” Hunk managed to stutter. Already he was feeling the sweat from running start to freeze; he needed to get inside _right freakin now._ “Need to g-go.”

It was only Pidge and Lance rushing forward to catch him that kept Hunk from falling down when Shiro took Keith off Hunk’s back. A quick glance at the time told Hunk that he had somehow managed to cut their thirty minute walk out to less than ten minutes back. No wonder he was winded. He was too cold and anxious to be proud of himself. 

“Are you good to fly your Lion?” Pidge asked, looking concerned. It looked like Hunk wasn’t breathing much better than Keith was right now. But she had to take his word for it when he nodded, and turned to rush to the warmth of Yellow. Now that everyone was back, it was takeoff time. 

“Lance, I want you to fly behind Hunk and make sure he and the Yellow Lion get back safe. The Blue Lion should be strong enough to give him a tow if he needs it. Pidge, you take Keith. He can’t fly himself, and the Green Lion is the fastest after Red. I’ll get Keith’s Lion back,” Shiro ordered, passing Keith off to Pidge and immediately spinning around to run to the Black Lion. 

Pidge almost buckled under Keith’s sudden weight being shoved on her, but she managed to drag him into her Lion with no small amount of effort. She had to dump him to the floor rather quickly though. He was heavy, and the best she could do was prop him straight up against a wall and wish she had a seatbelt for him. As he was now, she’d be impressed if he remained upright the whole ride back to the Castle- but the faster she could get him back, the less she would have to worry about that. 

“Sit up straight, Keith. Slow, deep breaths, try and stay calm,” Pidge called behind her as she rushed to the cockpit and took off. She was smart enough to work out that he was having an asthma attack. His lack of reply had her wondering if he could even hear her. 

Keith could, and he wanted to inform her that she was telling him things he’d already heard from Hunk, but he couldn’t bring himself to waste precious air on that. Wasn’t worth it. Instead, he decided to focus on the advice he was given and sucked in as deep a breath as he could manage. He would take any bit of oxygen he could get. Even though he’d only been inside for a few minutes, and there was no way for him to warm up that quickly in a safe manner, Keith was weirdly upset over the fact that shivers still wracked his body. He was out of the cold, he should be just fine, damn it. 

As they flew, Pidge could hear Lance explaining to Hunk why they had returned earlier. It was Pidge who had heard the first part of Hunk’s attempt to reach them, but Shiro picked up on it a word or so in. When neither of them could get a reply from Hunk, Shiro had made the decision to turn them back around in hopes of meeting the other two safe and soundly. Of course, that hadn’t been the case. 

_“... but I n-never heard anything. I think Pidge and Shiro j-just wanted to go back because they were cold,”_ Lance finished, hoping everyone would ignore the occasional chatter of his teeth. 

“Lance, it’s a good thing I just got back to the Castle, otherwise I’d come up with some scalding remark that you’d never recover from,” Pidge said distractedly. She wasted no time when she landed- she was holding Keith’s arm over her shoulder and pulling him to the exit before it was even open. She’d made it to the ground outside when Lance seemed to materialize out of no where, followed closely by a panting, shivering Hunk. No sooner was he there when he took one of Keith’s arms and pulled him up to a standing position at his side. Wrapping an arm under Keith’s pits, Lance started hauling him away into the Castle. 

“Shit dude, you’re heavier than you look.”

“S’all... muscle.” Keith couldn’t help but reply- had it been anyone besides Lance, he probably would’ve kept his mouth shut. But this was Lance, and something needed to be said. 

It didn’t take long before Shiro was up alongside them, taking a place at Keith’s other side and helping Lance to haul him along. 

“Hunk, I’m sorry to make you run around more, but can you go get some water boiling?” Shiro was sounding rather short of breath himself, but that was just because he’d been sprinting everywhere for the last ten minutes. “Maybe see if you can find something with caffeine to put in it?”

Ignoring the ever-increasing rubbery feeling in his leg, Hunk hurried off to the kitchen to do as Shiro said. Pidge followed him to see if she could help- anything to get close to an oven and warm her frigid fingers. That left only Shiro and Lance to get Keith to Coran.

“Coran, we need something to expand his airway,” Shiro said urgently, dumping Keith onto a table when they finally found Coran. By some miracle Keith was still breathing shallowly, but it looked like it was taking all his focus to keep doing so. It was hard to say if it was the cold or the lack of oxygen that was tinting his skin blue. Either way, it needed to be fixed. “I don’t think he has an inhaler up here. Do you?”

He looked down to see Keith shaking his head weakly. “No- point. Thought- I didn’t- need- it.”

Keith was sucking in rattling breaths between words that sounded downright painful. Lance sat down at Keith’s side, letting Shiro and Coran do the hard work. He wrapped an arm around Keith’s shoulders in an attempt to share some body heat- Keith needed to warm up, and Lance was still cold as fuck himself. Huddling for warmth was something he’d heard of many times, and it had helped tremendously back on the planet with Shiro and Pidge. Hopefully warming him up would do some good. 

As much as Shiro wanted to scold Keith for his incredibly poor decision, he instead turned back to Coran. “Do you have any medication that will help? I’ve got Hunk and Pidge working on something that will help a little, but I’d feel better knowing that we had something more reliable than an at-home remedy.”

“I’m sure we do. What exactly is it that’s obstructing his breathing?” Coran asked. 

“Basically exposure to the cold led to inflammation of the air passage, so it’s swollen and hard to breathe.”

“Ah, so just an anti-inflammatory. I have plenty of those stocked up. Can he swallow?”

Shiro looked down again and Keith shook his head. “No.”

“Very well...” Coran muttered, turning around to his medicine cabinet. They called it a cabinet, but it was really more akin to a huge bookshelf full of remedies of all kinds. Pills, salves, inhalants, liquids, and several shelves worth of emergency first-aid supplies. What with how often injuries occurred in their little team, it was good to keep those kinds of things on hand. “Can’t swallow... that likely wouldn’t work... perhaps... no... ah ha!”

Lance and Shiro had been listening to Coran mutter to himself with bemused looks. They looked even more confused when Coran spun around wielding what they assumed was a remedy loaded in a tattoo machine. What kind of medicine was administered like that?

“What is that?”

“It’s a subcutaneous anti-inflammatory. Should set him right like _that,”_ Coran said, snapping his fingers. “Hold still now, number four. Just a quick prick in the neck and- what’s wrong?”

As soon as he spotted the needle, Keith’s eyes went wide and he was shaking his head as best he could. 

_Needles._ Shiro groaned when he remembered an incident years ago that involved Keith, a chickenpox vaccine, a doctor with a black eye, and two disgruntled nurses that wound up having to pin their extremely difficult patient down. He was keen on avoiding another scene like that- Keith had bulked up a lot since then, and holding him down could take a lot more effort. “Look, Coran just said that it would be a quick prick. There’s no reason to be scared. In fact, I bet you won’t even notice.”

“No- ‘m coming ‘round,” Keith rasped, sounding worse than ever. It was nearly impossible to even make out what he was saying. 

Well at least this time he was in the middle of an asthma attack. Which meant that Keith wouldn’t be able to fight him off, if it came to that. 

“Oh come now, it’ll help! Don’t be difficult, number four!”

“Nuh-uh. Don’ need it.”

_“Keith,”_ Shiro finally snapped, “you were the one who left his inhaler on Earth. If you had been responsible and brought it along, then you wouldn’t have to worry about this. But now you’re just going to have to suck it up and take your medication like a big boy.”

“But-” Keith was cut off when Coran took advantage of his momentary distraction. He darted in, pressing the tip of the needle to his neck and pulled the trigger. Keith felt a quick pinch, and the next thing he knew his lungs were filling with the first full breath of air he’d taken in what felt like ages. Gulping in oxygen and reveling it it, Keith leaned forward ever so carefully, and then pushed himself onto his feet. His muscles were tight and he was still freezing, but he couldn’t remember feeling as good as he did now. You never really appreciated the ability to breathe until you almost couldn’t anymore. 

“Now, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” Coran asked. 

“I guess I’ve had worse.”

“Good job not fainting this time,” Shiro remarked, looking rather smug. 

“Shit, Shiro, why would you say that out loud? And in front of-“

“Aww, big ‘ol tough guy Keith faints when he sees a needle!” Lance teased. 

“I wasn’t scared! I just wasn’t in the mood to have something stabbing my neck. Besides, even if I _was,_ I don’t think it’s unreasonable to not like having a little metal rod being shoved into your body to have some weird substance injected-“ Keith cut himself off, shuddering. 

“It’s been a while since you’ve had an attack,” Shiro said when Keith stopped talking. “I thought you’d grown out of them.”

Keith actually looked embarrassed, and was avoiding eye contact with everyone. “I thought I had too. Apparently not.”

“Was it the cold that triggered it?” Pidge asked, walking into the room in front of Hunk. “Matt had asthma when he was a kid, and cold air was always really hard on him. Here’s a blanket.”

“It did get worse when it started getting colder,” Hunk pointed out. “Here, sip on this, it’ll warm you up.”

“I said I didn’t want to go down there,” Keith said petulantly, draping the blanket around his shoulders and clutching the steaming cup close to his body. “So really, it wasn’t my fault. It was Allura’s, she was the one who insisted we go.”

“How was I to know this would happen?!”

“It’s not your fault, Allura,” Shiro said, scowling over at Keith. “He’s just being difficult because he knows he made a bad decision.”

“Hunk,” Keith pushed on, clearly no longer wanting to discuss that further, “I owe you big time. I wouldn’t have made it out of there if I had been with anyone else. Except maybe Shiro. I’m really glad you were my partner on this one. Thanks.”

For his part, Hunk just beamed. A ‘thanks’ from Keith was a rarity, so he appreciated it for all it was. 

“You know,” Lance said with a tone that said he was about to play devil’s advocate, “Pidge flew you back to the Castle. And I practically carried you to Coran.”

“You mean you guys did the easy parts.”

“Shut up!”

“Next time you can fly yourself back!” 

“I was kidding,” Keith said, grinning at Lance and Pidge’s reactions. “Seriously. You guys are a good team. Don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Allura, Coran, do you have any clue as to what the signal was all about?” Shiro asked as the rest of the team basked in Keith’s gratitude. 

“Like Keith said,” Allura answered with a bit of a sheepish smile. “It must’ve just been a fluke. I am sorry we put you through that, Keith.”

Keith waved her off, trying not to look too uncomfortable under Shiro’s frown. “Shiro was right. It wasn’t your fault. I should’ve kept my inhaler on me. Lesson learned.”

Despite not liking to admit to being wrong, Keith took some comfort when the Alteans looked relieved. 

•••

“Hey, do you have any more of that medicine you gave Keith?” 

“Of course I do, Hunk. Why? Are you feeling like you need some?” 

“No,” Hunk said, shaking his head. “I’m fine. I was just thinking, it could be possible to program some of that stuff into Keith’s suit in case he needs it again. There’s no guarantee that he could make it back here in time if he has another attack. So having it on hand would be a good idea, don’t you think?”

Coran nodded slowly as he thought about what Hunk was suggesting. “Yes... I believe there is a way to keep it in a gaseous state whilst maintaining its medicinal properties. That way Keith would just be able to inhale it, rather than needing a shot. He didn’t seem to appreciate that much, I reckon he’d prefer the inhalant.”

“I got that feeling too. You think we could make it happen?”

“I believe so! There’s only one way to find out though. Let’s get to work.”

**Author's Note:**

> We could all use more Hunk saving the day, and more damsel in distress Keith, right? Idk, I originally had this going a whole different direction, but then rewrote it when I couldn't write a satisfying ending with it. Not sure how satisfied I actually am with _this_ ending, but eh. It works better than what I had at first. 
> 
> Kudos make my day, and comments make me happy cry! My inbox is always open @ https://the-sinnamon-roll-writes.tumblr.com/ if you wanna request anything!


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